


Pieces

by ImperfectOrphanage



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-04 00:26:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13352646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperfectOrphanage/pseuds/ImperfectOrphanage
Summary: Neku and Joshua put together a puzzle.





	Pieces

The text on Neku’s phone was done up in an elegant scrawl. He wasn’t sure how Joshua managed to send it since there wasn’t an application on Neku’s phone for fancy stuff. It had to be a Composer thing. Joshua was nothing if not lazy and he often used his power for silly reasons. The image of a lounging Composer all bright and glowing while texting on his phone in a bored manner made Neku laugh.

_Good morning, Neku. Would you come over to visit?_

He didn’t reply. He figured it would be a waste of time since he was already on his way over to the rather quaint little apartment. Joshua had once owned a penthouse suite, but he tired of the spacious apartment and wanted something a bit more cozy. He decorated the tiny two room and one bath apartment in the smallest of details. There were sections of wall hiding nooks and crannies, and a series of shelves made up to look like steps with even more storage beneath. He didn’t own a bed or a futon, but he did have what he called a conversation pit.

It was a round section of sunken floor with a small kotatsu in the middle. Obviously he had raised the floor for the sunken effect, which gave him even more space to hide treasures. Joshua loved to be secretive and sneaky, and he often told Neku to find where he hid an item. It was a game. Everything to Joshua was a game.

Neku stood in front of the blocky apartment complex that looked like boxes stack in haphazard ways on top of each other. He would often stare at it and wonder how it managed not to tumble like Jenga pieces.

Entering the front stairwell he slowly plodded up to the third level apartment. The sound of soft jazz played within, and Neku knocked gently on the door decorated with a cute nametag.

_Kiryu, Joshua. =^..^=_

The door opened and Joshua smiled as he saw Neku. “You came. How kind.”

Neku entered the apartment as Joshua stepped aside. It smelled of rich wood as the walls and floors were made from expensive bits of faraway trees. He slid his coat off, handed it to Joshua, and went immediately to the conversation pit to get warm.

On the kotatsu was a box with a jigsaw puzzle inside. He picked it up to inspect the picture of adorable bunnies and sugary sweets. “Is this why you asked me over?”

“I was bored,” Joshua said with a wave of a hand. “I assumed you would be.”

He put the box back down. “Why?”

“Because I wasn’t with you,” he teased.

“Ass.”

Joshua smirked and settled down across from Neku. “Would you like to help me with it? I am not the best at puzzles in board form.”

“Sure. I’m already here so why not?” Neku cracked the box open and scattered the pieces on top of the wooden kotatsu. He slid his hand over them and began to pick out the pieces for the border. There wasn’t enough space on the tabletop to put the pieces if they were going to put the puzzle on it. Neku turned a bit and began setting the sorted pieces onto the wood floor to the side and on the seat. “I’ll work on the outside and you can start matching colored pieces into piles.”

“Wonderful.”

They worked in silence for several seconds. Joshua often hated the quiet, and he piped up softly, “Shiki came by the other day. We went over plans for her upcoming line. Eri was busy with the paperwork.”

“Sweet,” Neku replied. “Have you seen the others?”

“Beat had the flu and I kept Rhyme here for a few days. I walked her to school and we did a little shopping for her family. She is such a sweet child. Oh, these two fit,” he said while holding up two pieces.

Neku grinned. “Good job.”

“Hm,” Joshua tilted his head, “I don’t know what I’m looking at.”

“Lemme see.” Neku took the pieces. “I think it’s this spot.”

Joshua stared at the box where Neku pointed. “Oh! I see.”

“That’s basically what you have to do. Sort pieces into border and inside, sort those into colors, and if there are borders inside the picture, you sort those, too.”

“And?”

“And then you look at the picture on the box and look at a piece and see where it goes. Sort those into smaller piles and put them together.”

Joshua bumped two pieces together. He turned them this way and that. “No, no…nope…mm…no.”

“I think those are in the same group but there’s a piece that goes in the middle.”

He set them down. “You are very good at this.”

“When I was little, my mom and I would put puzzles together and talk about things.” Neku put two border pieces together. “I miss her.”

“I miss my mother,” Joshua sighed. “She was a bright spark of light.”

“Yeah.”

Silence fell once more and it lasted for almost half an hour. The only noise was Joshua’s music and the click click of puzzle pieces on wood. It was coming together, and the two of them had each worked two sections on opposite corners of the puzzle.

Joshua’s face lit up and he slid the two sections together to meet in the middle of the puzzle by one piece alone. He smiled at Neku, proud of his progress, and Neku smiled back.

“Good job.”

“Thank you, Neku.”

Neku didn’t want to say what was in his heart. The two sides, both very different, joined at one single little piece. It reminded him of the UG and the RG, and how Joshua and he would skirt around the boundaries to remain friends.

Two sides, now interlocked to complete the big picture for both of them.

“You are adorable,” Joshua giggled.

“Don’t poke in my head.”

“But I love it in your head. I feel safe in your mind.”

“Why? Because it’s empty?”

“No,” Joshua snapped another piece into place, “because it is full.”

The warmth of the kind words made Neku shiver. He laughed. “Yeah, okay.”

“Would you like to stay the night? I bought two futons the other day since Rhyme needed a place to sleep and I did not want to bother her.”

Neku reached for a piece and Joshua’s fingers grazed his. Together they pushed the piece into place and their eyes met for a long breath.

“Yeah. I’d like that.”

“Good!” Joshua popped up. “You finish up here and I-“

He wasn’t sure why he encircled Joshua’s wrist with his fingers. “Stay.”

“Stay?”

“Stay.”

Joshua pulled his wrist free only to intertwine his fingers with Neku’s. The Composer sat down and continued to work on the puzzle with one hand as the other was still curled in Neku’s.

It took longer to finish with only one hand each.


End file.
